American Lit Final Exam
Joyce Carol Oates models Arnold Friend after this real-life serial killer.
Charles "Smitty" Schmid also known as the Pied Piper of Tuscon
Gilman's "Spinning into Butter" was named after what story, written by whom, and in what year?
"Little Black Sambo" Written by Helen Bannerman in 1899 (in Britain) 1900 in the U.S.
Name the artist and title of this painting. In relationship to what work did we discuss it? (woman and man - woman staring longingly out window)
(1) Evelyn de Morgan's "The Gilded Cage" (1919) (2) Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Who coined the term the lost generation and what does it refer to?
(1) Gertrude Stein (2) refers to the alienation of people who had lived through the devastations of WWI in Europe (not just Paris). Many American authors who, arguably, are the most important in the English language lived in Paris as part of this so-called lost generation: Sherwood Anderson; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ernest Hemingway; Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)
Name the (1) speaker; (2) author; (3) title; (4) significance of the following quote: "...and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was...I was the best friend old __ ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now...I'd got to decide...and then says to myself, "I'll go to hell!"
(1) Huck (2) Mark Twain (3) "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (4) Significant of Huck's moral debate whether he should do what society says a white--even poor white--should do when confronted with a run away slave (turn him in) or whether he should follow his heart (not turn Jim in). When Huck makes his decision to go with his heart, he feels like he's betraying what he's been taught, and therefore he thinks he'll go to hell for making the so-called wrong decision.
To picture poor, white, sharecropper, tenant farmer families like Abner Snopes in Faulkner's "Barn Burning," think of the pictures in (authors here) (book title here), a 1939 book that arose out of a writer's and a photographer's assignment to write an article for Fortune Magazine on the sharecropper families in the American South during the Great Depression.
(1) James Agee and Walker Evans (2) "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men"
Literary modernism roughly covers what years? What specific decade saw the international movement of high modernism?
(1) Modernism: 1901 (when Queen Victoria died) to 1945 (end of WWII) (2) High modernism = 1920s (when leading American high modernists tended to be permanent expatriates and left the United States because they found it lacking in tradition of high culture and indifferent, if not actively hostile, to artistic achievement)
Name the (1) speaker; (2) author; (3) title; (4) significance of the following quote: "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills."
(1) Narrator (2) Kate Chopin (3) "The Story of an Hour" (4) Doctors think Louise Mallard died from the excitement of realizing her husband, Brently, wasn't killed in a train wreck. They cannot fathom the idea that she could--and did--die of disappointment because she was no longer "free" from the institution of marriage.
Name the (1) speaker; (2) author; (3) title; (4) significance of the following quote: Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table.
(1) Speaker / J. Alfred Prufrock himself (2) T. S. Eliot (3) "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (4) A great example of the objective correlative: the sky mimics the feelings of Prufrock; the sky is "like a patient etherised on a table" because Prufrock is "like" a patient etherized on a table as well: he's paralyzed by constant fear.
What did the 15th Amendment do, and what work/author is it connect with?
(1) The 15th Amendment was passed in 1870 to guarantee and protect the voting rights of African American men. (2) (Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois) At the turn of the twentieth century, African Americans in the American South had yet to enjoy many of the rights and opportunities promised them by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Fifteenth Amendment. Many African Americans were denied the right to vote by expensive poll taxes, property requirements, or bogus so-called literacy tests. At the same time, Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in virtually all public spaces in the South, from railroad cars to schools. Violence against African Americans—including lynching—was on the rise. Although W. E. B. Du Bois had previously supported Booker T. Washington's conciliatory philosophy, in The Souls of Black Folk he modified his position: "So far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North and South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds . . . we must unceasingly and firmly oppose [him]."
What does antebellum mean? Which work have we read specifically discusses the antebellum period?
(1) occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American Civil War (2) Twain's The Adventures of Huck Finn (published in 1884 but describes the 1840s)
What are the numbers on the side of Arnold Friend's car? Name one possible meaning of these numbers.
33, 19, 17 One possible meaning is that the numbers add up to 69, which could be a warning that Friend wants a deviant sexual relationship with Connie, or maybe it's his age and then the two younger ages are those of his previous victims.
The Gilded Age
A term coined by Mark Twain, who was referring to the thin sheen of wealth and extravagance covering a reality of corruption and desperation. Last 30 years of the 19th century: 1870-1900.
The Talented Tenth
An idea proposed by W.E.B Du Bois where an elite group of gifted and polished individuals could benefit from a rigourous classical education and move the African American race forward.
Ernest J. Gaines's novel A Gathering of Old Men takes place in what fictional city? (give city and state)
Bayonne, Louisiana which is in Bayou country, a small region in Louisiana between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter takes place at what fictional college in what state?
Belmont College in Belmont, Vermont
Jhumpa Lahiri's short story "Sexy" takes place in what city?
Boston
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman takes place mainly in the Loman's home, which is located where?
Brooklyn, NY
Name the three characters who do no narrate a chapter in Ernest J. Gaines's A Gathering of Old Men.
Candy Marshall, Sheriff Mapes, Mathu
Examples of minimalist authors/works:
Carver's "Cathedral" and Junot Diaz's "Drown"
"Bad Boy" in Children's Literature
Characteristics of "bad boy" lit include: implications of middle class norms retreat from adult experiences episodic rather than linear depict boyhood rather than the maturation process the bad boy is plucky and continually gets himself and others into trouble bad boy isn't mean nor is he a bully
Identify the Dixits
Characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, "Sexy" they were Miranda's childhood neighbors who were from India. Neighbors ostracized the Dixits because they were different (women wouldn't include the mom, people wouldn't walk in front of their home). Once when Miranda was little, she went to a party at their home and was scared of a tapestry; she never went back.
New Woman
Embodied new values and posed a challenge to existing order. The new woman empowered the work not only of regionalist Kate Chopin, but also of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and the young Gertrude Stein. In literature and social history, the new woman comes to mind most readily in the familiar image of the 1920s Jazz Age flapper with the bobbed hair and boyish figure that proclaimed the personal freedom.
The following photograph illustrates what sociological concept? Give a brief definition of that concept. (the 2 diff. buildings next to each other photo)
Gentrification: the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by the upper classes or middle classes thereby raising property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses
This book was first banned just one month after its publication in 1885: "Not suitable for trash" claimed the Concord, MA librarians who banned it. What is the book?
Huckleberry Finn
Objective Correlative
Literary term coined by T.S. Eliot that means the set of objects, a situation, or chain of events that evoke a particular emotion.
Critics traditionally divide Henry James's career into 3 categories; roughly what are these categories and during which one was Daisy Miller published?
International theme (1864-1881): drama, comic and tragic, of Americans in Europe Second phase (1882-95): social and political currents of the 1870s and 1880s Major phase (1896-16): returned to international and cosmopolitan topics Daisy Miller was published in 1878, so it would have been during James's international phase
Define/explain "It's All Over Now Baby Blue"
Joyce Carol Oates dedicated "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" to singer, songwriter Bob Dylan after hearing his "haunting" song, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." The dedication also highlights the difference between the popular music Connie and her friends enjoy and the somber lyrics of Dylan's song. In other words, Connie's world is defined by movies, drive-in restaurants, and popular music of the 1960s, which would be mindless, sentimental, and romantic. On the other hand, Dylan's topics (anti-war, hunger, class consciousness, and poverty) stand out in bold contrast.
We read a short story by which author who is most famous for his/her series of novels with Rabbit as a character?
John Updike
When this book was published in 1899, its author was dropped from St. Louis social clubs and snubbed by friends. The author fell into obscurity for nearly 50 years but by the 1970s came to be recognized as a major author of turn-of-the-century American literary culture. Name the author and book.
Kate Chopin "The Awakening"
Briefly describe the narrative technique of Ernest J. Gaines' A Gathering of Old Men.
Originally, Gaines wrote the book entirely from Lou Dimes' perspective, instead of what we read and discussed in class: 15 different narrators who let the story unfold. This experimental narrative technique works to create communal 'folk' storytelling that is so important to Gaines. Gaines' narrative style and storytelling technique allow the characters to reveal themselves and their relations with others. Within this framework, Gaines uses the fifteen narrators—black, white, old, and young—to deal with the changing relations between the Cajuns and the African Americans in Louisiana in the late 1970s.
Explain the significance of the following lines from Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.
People take such a huge famous painter and sculptor, Michelangelo, who painted the Sistine Chapel and sculpted David, and turn him into mere party chatter; he has become a trivial conversation topic. This is something trivial people can talk about if they don't delve too deeply and ask "What is it?" Going back to the first 3 lines of the poem, if you don't ask "What is it?" then you won't discover the truth. And really, what could you do if you discovered the truth anyway? You're like a patient etherized on a table. People are rendered immobile by the truth. With knowledge there is a certain burden; rather than address it, people would rather just not see it.
Name the (1) speaker; (2) author; (3) title; (4) significance of the following quote: "I don't know," said ____. "I don't want to go to Italy. I want to go to America."
Randolph Miller Author: Henry James "Daisy Miller" Randolph symbolizes American patriotism because he's the constant champion of America's superiority. As an aside, his characterization gives the impression that he's convinced his mother and his sister to let him have his own way (lots of candy, little supervision, no instruction or teacher) through intimidation and empty bravado.
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" takes place in
Southern Georgia
Name the (1) speaker; (2) author; (3) title; (4) significance of the following quote: "Too old!" cried ___, "why man, she's only twenty-seven."
Speaker: Dexter Green (2) F. Scott Fitzgerald (3) "Winter Dreams" Dexter loves "the glittering things themselves." He doesn't just want money; he wants the beautiful life that he has always imagined belongs to the rich. When he learns that Judy Jones has married, become a mother, and isn't as physically appealing as she once was, his years of following her suddenly appear hollow and pointless.
Briefly outline some cultural and political differences between the 1960s and the 1970s. Start with 1960s.
The 1960s were years of protest and reform. - Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War - Americans demonstrated for civil rights - Women and women's rights supporters demonstrated for equal treatment - For many, society's hero was the person who helped others Music showed the change, too. - In the 1960s, folk music was very popular (think Bob Dylan). Many folk songs were about social problems In the 1960s, many young people expressed little interest in continuing their education after four years of study in college - They were busy working for social reforms - Many believed that more education only created unequal classes of people.
In 1930, twelve southern men, also called ________ wrote a manifesto called ___________. What's the general gist of this book?
The Fugitives "I'll Take My Stand" These guys were a particularly passionate circle of regionalists formed in the South in the 1920s. The group had its origins among students and faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and included Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, and Allen Tate. They themselves were important authors, poets, and critics, and they embraced more cosmopolitan artists like T. S. Eliot, whose bleak depictions of modern existence reflected their own perspectives. They fought the idea of so-called progress accompanied with the rise of urban centers and factory labor in the early 20th century; they sought an alternative—rejuvenating the traditional agrarian (plantation??) experience. Attitudes held by the Agrarians/Fugitives and represented by the Sartoris family, tangentially mentioned in William Faulkner's "Barn Burning," include traditional, aristocratic attitudes and reverence for landed gentry lifestyle.
Paris, divided: Describe the two different banks in Paris created by the Seine River. Which side the the first wave of expatriates live on?
The Left Bank is the so-called cultural side. It includes Sorbonne University in the Latin Quarter and was where the intellectuals, artists, and musicians lived. It's billed as quieter than the Right Bank. This is the bank where the expatriates, especially those of the first wave from 1919-1940 lived. The Right Bank, also called Montmartre, is often called the fun side. Montmartre includes the Louvre, opera houses, & the Place Vendome.
Briefly explain the importance of stage directions/setting in the opening and closing (not Requiem) scenes of Arthur Miller's, "Death of a Salesman."
The Loman home is surrounded by new buildings, which leaves their small home closed-in and without much natural sunlight. In the final scene of the play, Willy attempts to plant vegetables in his backyard, knowing that they won't grow. This scene seems symbolic for two reasons: 1. It represents the past, a time before the house was enclosed by apartments and a time before "the woman"; in essence, it symbolizes a time when Willy was still idolized by his sons, and it's a desire to return to innocence. 2. It can also represent success and achievement; Willy's life has been empty and fruitless: he's living a life full of lies. He understands and acknowledges that his sons (living things) are not thriving in the environment (soil) that he has brought them up with (being well-liked equals being successful).
1970s
The period of change came during the 1970s. - For a while, these years remained tied to the social experiments and struggles of the 1960s - One reason was that the United States ended its military involvement in Vietnam. Another was that the civil rights movement and women's movements reached many of their goals - A third reason was the economy. During the 1970s, the United States suffered an economic recession. Interest rates and inflation were high. - There was a shortage of imported oil (you get a hint of this in Updike's "Separating") Music: In the 1970s, groups played hard rock and punk music, instead Self-help books were another sign that Americans were becoming more concerned about their own lives - These books described ways to make people happier with themselves. One of the most popular was called I'm Okay, You're Okay. It was published in 1969. It led the way for many similar books throughout the 1970s The 1970s also saw a change in education. Education: By the middle 1970s, however, more young people decided it was acceptable to make a lot of money - Higher education was a way to get the skills to do this. Law schools and medical schools soon had long lists of students waiting to get in
Define paternalism and briefly explain its presence in one literary work we discussed.
The policy or practice of restricting the freedoms and responsibilities of subordinates or dependants in what is considered or claimed to be their best interests. Recent examples include Candy in A Gathering of Old Men and Sarah in Spinning into Butter, where she says: "They point out that your desire to help minority students doesn't have anything to do with a sense of justice or fair play. Instead it stems from your 'plantation mentality.' Your paternalism. Your desire to help the noble savage" (72-73).
Name character, work, and significance of the following quote: "'That's exactly what I used to think,' he said, his ten piggy fingers buried in his carpeted steering wheel. 'But now I have a house, a car, a gun, and a wife. Discipline. Loyalty. Can you say that you have those things? Even one?'"
The southern army recruiter in Junot Diaz's "Drown" joining the army seems like one of Yunior's only viable options out of his current life situation. In class, we discussed a variety of reasons why he wouldn't/couldn't jump at the opportunity.
The following is a photo of a building on what camps? What's the historical significance of this institution? (looks like a black and white photo of a church?)
This building is on the campus of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881. The Tuskegee Institute was established to train Black men and women in agricultural and mechanical trades. Washington and the 30 original students constructed the school buildings from bricks they'd made themselves. Washington convinced southern white employers and governors that Tuskegee offered an education that would keep Blacks "down on the farm" and in the trades.
Define the sociological concept illustrated by the following photographs: (graffiti on buildings, etc.)
Urban Blight: Caused by any number of circumstances that worsen over time due to human neglect Occurs in areas that are impacted by poverty and lack of economic opportunity Neighborhoods are at an increased risk of various economic, social, and physical health disparities Historically, blighted neighborhoods also have higher rates of crime and illicit drug activity
In (title of book here), this author explains that blacks must come to view themselves through the perspective—sometimes hostile—of whites and he calls this double-consciousness: "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." Name the author and work.
W.E.B. Du Bois "The Souls of Black Folk"
Eudora Welty worked for the WPA. What does WPA stand for, what is it, exactly, and what specific job did Welty hold?
Works Progress Administration Was a Great Depression relief measure that began in 1935 and officially ended in 1943. The program offered employment to the unemployed in a wide variety of programs including building highways and general construction, slum clearance, reforestation, and photography. Welty was a photographer.
What is, "Tragedy and the Common Man" ?
a short essay written by Arthur Miller in 1949. He claims that few tragedies are written in the modern era, but he affirms that the "common man" is a good subject for a tragedy. Throughout the essay, Miller argues that the idea a tragic hero must be from a high rank is nothing more than adhering to Aristotle's traditions for tradition's sake. Furthermore, he explains that we all have tragic flaws and only those who are passive and refuse to act to change their situations are "flawless"; in other words, being flawless is a bad thing. Miller also asserts that it is a misconception to link tragedy with pessimism; the possibility of victory must be present in tragedy because tragedy involves a balance between what is possible and what is impossible. The final line of the essay reads: "It is time, I think, that we who are without kings, took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possible lead in our time—the heart and spirit of the average man," which is a literal call to American dramatists, for British dramatists have kings and queens.
Define and historically situate McCarthyism. What author was called before McCarthy's committee on subversive acts?
a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950-54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party. History: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?" asked U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who rose to national prominence in the 1950s by initiating a probe to ferret out communists holding prominent positions in the U.S. government, film industry, and literary industry, to name a few. Author: Arthur Miller; was subpoenaed by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was convicted of contempt of Congress for his refusal to identify writers believed to hold Communist sympathies, but in 1958 the United States Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. Because of Miller's political involvements, plays such as All My Sons and Death of a Salesman were seen by literary critics—especially during the Cold War—as political tracts.
Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" first appeared in Harper's Bazaar under the title "Almos' a Man" in what decade?
appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1939 (appeared under its current title, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in a posthumously published collection called Eight Men in 1961).
Minimalism/minimalist literature
contemporary fiction written in a deliberate flat, unemotional tone, wherein the author relies more on action, scene, and dialogue than complex narration. by giving the reader a bare minimum of information, he will figure out what's underneath.
Briefly identify the Grand Tour. What work have we read that depicts a character on a Grand Tour?
is a chance to spend months abroad and become acquainted with the culture of the Old World Henry James's Daisy Miller; the Miller family seems like one of the families that benefited from Gilded Age production; Daisy's father is a businessman in upstate New York, after all. These types of families were often considered to wear their wealth too openly, without proper discretion. This is also the period when an increasing number of young Americans, including women, participated in the Grand Tour.
Noblesse Oblige and an example
the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged. Example: Candy Marshall in Gaines's Gathering of Old Men, who takes it upon herself to save Mathu from Fix and his gang. Another example is Dean Sarah Daniels in Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter.
